Colorado lawmakers have a tight beam to walk on the issue of alcohol, as some legislators work on a compromise to allow hard liquor, wine and full-strength beer in grocery stores. The way it is now you can’t get anything harder than watered-down 3.2 percent beer outside of liquor and wine stores, over dinner at a restaurant or down at the local watering hole.

It’s a tricky path partly because it’s an election year. On one hand, drinking voters probably like convenience, possibly more selection and potentially a better price from the big-box retailers, where they could pick up a $5 bottle of Wild Irish Rose alongside Ring Dings and Pepsi. On the other hand, thousands of jobs at liquor stores and craft breweries could be at stake, and there’s a firm allegiance to small businesses in this state. Candidates should choose their words wisely.

This boozy quagmire is not new to politics or me. Before coming to Colorado in 2002, I covered politics and civil rights in Mississippi. In a state known for traditions, good and bad, one of the best was the way the Magnolia State closed its legislative session. Rep. Steve Holland breathed new life into the ghost of Soggy Sweat.

Probably not the most surprising news you’ll hear today: Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s lieutenant governor nominee, Donna Lynne, has donated to his campaigns and the Democratic Party.

The National Institute on Money in State Politics released a report Monday that indicates 86 percent of the $50,099 Lynne and her co-workers at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Permanente Colorado gave from 2000 through 2015 supported Democrats.

Lynne gave $10,050, “almost all of it to Democrats,” according to the institute.

The Rev. Nelson Bock of Together Colorado leads a prayer at a press conference Monday to support a potential ballot measure to remove references to slavery from the state constitution. (Photo by Joey Bunch/The Denver Post)

Clergy and community members gathered at the state Capitol Monday to campaign for Senate Concurrent Resolution 006, which would put a measure on the ballot to make it clear that prison labor isn’t “slavery.”

They want the reference to slavery edited out of the state constitution, which was written in 1877.

“To equate incarceration as a punishment for a crime with the abhorrent. immoral and ungodly institution of slavery is an affront to both the dignity of incarcerated persons as well as to the dignity of people whose ancestors were subject to the cruelty of slavery in our country,” said the Rev. Nelson Bock of Together Colorado, the multi-faith, multi-racial organization pushing the measure.

A rainbow appears after a brief rain Oct. 18, 2015 at Colorado’s state Capitol building. (Brent Lewis, The Denver Post)

The state Capitol steps are going to be awfully busy Friday afternoon. A group of Donald Trump supporters angry about how all the delegates were awarded Ted Cruz at last weekend’s state Republican Party Convention are planning a protest from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Meanwhile an anti-corruption group called Represent.Denver has a rally from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

I wrote about the Trump rally — and one in support of the state GOP at the party headquarters in Greenwood — here.

Represent.Denver plans to call on elected leaders to support a national anti-corruption act.

A screenshot from Michael Bennet’s first TV ad in the 2016 U.S. Senate campaign in Colorado.

Seven months before Election Day, Democrat Michael Bennet is launching his first TV ad in his U.S. Senate re-election bid.

The 30-second spot that debuts Thursday is designed to tout his record of accomplishments and define his brand early in the campaign — before his Republican rivals get a chance to do it for him. (See ad below.)

“Michael is proud of his record of finding ways to get things done for Colorado, despite the dysfunction going on in Washington,” said Andrew Zucker, who joined the Bennet campaign as spokesman Wednesday.

The early spot — part of an ongoing TV campaign in coming months — also showcases Bennet’s huge campaign cash advantage in the race. He started the year with $6.7 million in the bank and will report his first quarter haul later this month.

Caleb Bonham, at left, and Kyle Forti, co-founders, of the D/CO Consulting in Denver are taking over the client list of the conservative power-player political firm Avinova Media Group.

Colorado’s political up-and-comers D/CO Consulting just became power players. Co-founders Kyle Forti and Caleb Bonham are taking over a list of more than 140 clients from the well-known Avinova Media Group.

Avinova founder Jeff Hunt became executive director of the conservative Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University last October.

On the Avinova website, Hunt told clients D/CO “will help take you to the next level, and I look forward to your continued success.

Residents who live near fracking operations might worry about the impact to their property values, but so far the data doesn’t back up that concern, according to a study released Tuesday by Ballotpedia.

The online encyclopedia collected data from tax assessors for seven Colorado counties (Garfield, Grand, La Plata, Larimer, Pitkin, Routt and Weld), then compared home values to well-site data from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and residential water sources from the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

“This large research project found no definitive evidence that fracking negatively impacted home values and sales across seven counties in 2015,” said Kayla Harris, Ballotpedia’s energy policy analyst.

The Colorado Right to Know initiative in 2014 would have mandated GMO labeling.. Proposition 105 was handily defeated. (Thinkstock)

Larry Cooper, one of the driving forces behind the 2014 ballot initiative to require GMO labeling in Colorado, is urging Colorado’s U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet to maintain a vigil on a federal proposal to block states from addressing genetically modified foods.

He took issue with criticism of Bennet leveled by Farm Bureau Colorado President Don Shawcroft on March 16. Bennet voted against the legislation, because he thinks a better bill can come from a pending compromise, his office said.

After assisting with a costly campaign in 2014 to fight a potentially expensive requirement to label all foods containing GMOs, the Colorado Farm Bureau was dismayed after a ban on such state laws died on a 49-48 vote in the U.S. Senate Wednesday. The legislation on genetically modified foods needed 60 votes to clear a procedural hurdle.

Don Shawcroft, president of Colorado Farm Bureau, called out Colorado’s Democratic senator, Michael Bennet of Denver, for voting against the measure and praised Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, for voting for it.

“We are surprised that Senator Bennet would vote against this GMO labeling legislation in the Senate. In 2014, 65 percent of Colorado voters opposed mandatory GMO labeling.” Shawcroft said in a statement Thursday. “Instead of voting to pass common-sense legislation that allows companies to decide, Sen. Bennet instead decided to allow one Northeast state to restrict options and increase prices for Colorado residents.”

The coalition behind the push to rewrite Colorado’s alcohol laws says it will not seek to expand liquor sales as part of the 2016 ballot campaign.

Your Choice Colorado, the organization pursing sales of full-strength beer and wine in convenience stores and supermarkets, will not author any measure tied to liquor sales, a spokesman told The Denver Post.

Robert Arrington, liquor manager for the Safeway store at 181 W. Mineral Ave. in Littleton, stocks shelves with bottles of wine. Grocery chains are allowed to designate just one store to sell full-strength beer, wine and liquor. Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post

“Having spoken with Coloradans around the state, Your Choice Colorado will only seek to allow the sale of full-strength beer and wine in neighborhood markets when we go to the ballot in November,” said the group’s Matt Chandler.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.